In some motorized countries there exist the risks of encountering quite large animals, such as e.g., moose, elks and other animals of similar size, when driving along in a motor vehicle. There is of course a risk of serious consequences should a collision occur between one's own vehicle and a large animal. Collisions with such large animals often occur at significant speeds, as the animals often move quite rapidly onto the road from the cover of surrounding vegetation.
An impact with a large animal in itself usually does not reduce the speed of the vehicle more than marginally. However, the ability of the driver to control the vehicle is usually significantly impaired. Thus, the risk of a secondary event becomes heightened. Such secondary events may involve other users of the road and may put the occupants of the vehicle suffering the large animal impact in a much worse situation than the original large animal collision caused. Such secondary events may even cause fatal single vehicle crashes, e.g., due to unintentional roadway departure, which accounts for high shares of traffic related fatalities.
The automotive industry has developed active safety systems that aim to prevent or mitigate accidents. One example is collision avoidance or mitigation systems that monitors the road ahead of the vehicle for potential collision threats and activate brakes of a vehicle prior to a potential impact. However, such systems may have difficulties in responding to the very rapid course of events if a large animal suddenly jumps onto the road in front of the vehicle. Furthermore, such systems may, even if they have responded and triggered application of the brakes of the vehicle, abort braking once the vehicle has suffered a collision with a large animal as there no longer exist any visible threat. Collision avoidance or mitigation systems have proven to be very efficient in reducing the amount of fatalities in traffic.
Further, there exist apparatuses for judging a collision type based on the particulars of a collision. Through EP0709256, an apparatus is previously known for judging an oblique, center pole and front barrier collision with the acceleration signals (Ax, Ay, Az) of a vehicle in longitudinal (X), lateral (Y) and vertical (Z) directions. The acceleration signals detected by acceleration sensors are filtered and transferred to a collision judging part. The acceleration signals detected by the acceleration sensors are integrated. Judgment for an oblique, center pole and front barrier collision is achieved by comparing the integrated acceleration signals with predetermined reference values.